Gameloft Confirms Plans to Develop For iPhone With Over 15 Titles in 2008

As referenced during the company's keynote speech at the recent Game Developers' Conference, Gameloft, a leading developer and publisher of games for mobile phones, today confirmed its intention to develop over 15 mobile games built upon Apple's iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK).

Though the SDK was recently released, games will only be available to purchase once the App Store, featuring third party applications that can be downloaded to your device via WiFi or EDGE, launches in June 2008.

Utilizing the SDK package, Gameloft development teams have started to create a strong line-up for 2008. As expected, iPhone proves to be a revolutionary gaming device, thanks in part to a 3.5-inch widescreen, the touch screen feature, a strong 3D processor and other exciting features such as the accelerometer.

"The iPhone gaming environment opens a new era in mobile gaming and is exactly what we've been waiting for" said Michel Guillemot, President of Gameloft. "The Apple iPhone has changed the way consumers perceive and interact with their mobile phones, and the release of the SDK is a tremendous opportunity for Gameloft to apply its creative and innovative approach to mobile gaming," said Guillemot. "Due to our investment in creating one of the most advanced and creative development studios to date, we are ideally positioned today to seamlessly integrate new opportunities and quickly produce games that are as evolutionary as they are enjoyable."

Gameloft has already proven successful in their recent relationship with Apple by developing mobile games that are uniquely adapted to the iPod, one of the most widely accepted technological devices in the mass market.

Motorola Ventures Announces Investment in Quantum SPA, a leading provider of portable media mobility players

Motorola, through Motorola Ventures, its strategic venture capital arm today announced a strategic investment in Quantum SPA, a leading provider of portable media mobility players. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.Quantum is a developer of DVB-H mobile TV media players and a robust mobile TV Software Engine which meets emerging mobile TV standards and DRM content protection solutions. These products allow consumers anytime access to media experiences such as live TV, on-demand clips and programs saved on a DVR.

"As the Mobile TV market continues to grow significantly, Motorola is committed to supporting innovative companies, such as Quantum, that strive to seamlessly deliver multimedia digital content to consumers on the go," said John O'Donohue, managing director, Motorola Ventures. "Motorola will leverage its relationship with Quantum to enable Pay TV Broadcasters and Mobile Network Operators to offer their subscribers compelling services leveraging the convergence of Mobile TV."

"We are honored to be associated with a forward-looking organization and leader in the mobility world such as Motorola," said Stefano Martini, chief executive officer, Quantum SPA. "Motorola's investment will allow Quantum to expand and accelerate the development of our product lines and create the conditions for a successful rollout of mobile TV worldwide."

Cricket Launches the CDM7126 by UTStarcom

SAN DIEGO & TULSA, Okla.--Cricket announced the world’s first CDMA Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) mobile phone – the UTStarcom CDM7126. Starting tomorrow the UTStarcom CDM7126 will be available at Cricket retail stores throughout Tulsa, Okla. and will soon be available in all Cricket markets nationwide.

Designed to operate on the new AWS spectrum band, this tri-band phone also operates on the PCS and cellular bands, enabling it to work in all existing Cricket wireless markets stretching from California to New York. The phone will also work in new Cricket markets slated to begin launching this year including Oklahoma City, Okla. and Las Vegas, Nev.

“We are pleased to be the first wireless carrier to offer an AWS wireless phone to our customers,”’s Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. “Taking this leadership position underscores our commitment to fostering product innovation by introducing CDMA’s first tri-band mobile device that enables multi-market use. This introduction marks the successful conclusion of two years of planning and development by UTStarcom and Cricket.” said Al Moschner, Cricket

With a sleek metallic, clamshell form factor, the UTStarcom CDM7126 features external indicators, which alert users of incoming calls and messages without the need to open the phone, plus a full-color internal display, providing optimal viewing of incoming calls, messaging alerts, games and other data applications. The Bluetooth-capable wireless handset also features voice recognition, predictive text input for easy text messaging, and supports Cricket Mobile Web for browsing and downloading favorite ringtones and graphics.

With plans starting as low as $35 per month, Cricket provides unlimited wireless calling all day and every day – without the need for contracts or credit checks. Cricket’s highest value plan – Cricket Nation 200 – is priced at only $60 per month and includes unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. domestic long distance, unlimited coverage in all Cricket markets, free text and picture messaging, voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, three-way calling and 200 nationwide roaming minutes per month.

Buzz Outlook for mobile

Buzz Outlook has upgraded their service to meet the need of modern business by providing a Web Based product that is a total email solution for all your different email addresses, and it is mobile.

The small technology company based in Thailand and Hong Kong has taken the lead in the very competitive free email market with its latest product. Any email address is instantly made mobile once the user signs up for Buzz Outlook, and that's just the beginning of the advantages also included in the service is an integrated SMS (Text Messaging) Platform that allows you to send SMS or even forward email by SMS directly from the Buzz Outlook Interface.

Subscriber Growth Remains Strong in the UK Mobile Market

DUBLIN, Ireland--Research and Markets has announced the addition of United Kingdom -Mobile Market - Overview & Statistics to their offering.
The UK has one of the largest mobile markets in Europe, served by five major providers which have all launched 3G services, as well as by a growing number of low-cost MVNOs. The market in 2007 was characterised by new developments in advanced data services such as mobile TV, the bundling of mobile as a quad-play service, and regulatory controls on charges and fees. Mobile penetration reached 117% by mid-2007, yet subscriber growth remains strong as consumers adopt additional SIMs and business-oriented devices such as the BlackBerry. Fierce competition has forced operators to concentrate on packaging service bundles and line service promotions, and experiment with providing mobile searching and advertising facilities.

M:Metrics Launches First Mobile Advertising Tracking Services in the UK

SEATTLE, WA and LONDON-- M:Metrics, the mobile media authority, today unveiled M:Ad, its competitive tracking service for mobile advertising, in the United Kingdom, revealing the first definitive metrics for measuring mobile advertising inventory. The measurement firm reports that online retail companies such as Electronic Arts, Glu and Ebay are placing the bulk of mobile ads, with the category comprising of 39 percent of all mobile ads tracked by M:Metrics.
"Early findings are encouraging, as they indicate that mobile is increasingly being incorporated into mainstream media buys," said Paul Goode, senior analyst, M:Metrics. "In January, M:Ad has tracked major brands across a range of industries, including Avis, BMW, Cadbury's, Citroen, EMAP and IBM, using mobile advertising."
This expansion to the M:Metrics product portfolio comes after the success of M:Ad in the United States, launched in November 2007. In January, M:Ad tracked 403 unique creative advertisements in the United Kingdom, in 91 campaigns representing 48 different companies. These ads were from a variety of different industries such as: advertising, automobile manufacturers, broadcasting and cable TV, Internet retail, movies and entertainment, casinos and gaming, food retail, home furnishings and computer hardware.
"Advertisers, media agency and media owners in the UK are calling out for greater clarity on who is advertising what, where and when, and today, M:Metrics can deliver this critical data to the market," said Goode. "In the United States, M:Ad has been strongly welcomed, and we are excited to bring our tracking expertise into the UK market to help grow mobile advertising expenditure."
With 16 percent of U.K. mobile subscribers accessing news and information via the mobile browser in December, advertisers' attention is turning towards banner advertising. M:Ad classifies mobile ads by company, division and product/service as well as by industry/sector. It also reveals when ads are being served to help identify seasonality and campaign rotation. There is no other way of monitoring the breadth of current inventory of mobile ads to inform advertising campaign strategies.
Using M:Metrics' proprietary data collection technologies and measurement science expertise, M:Ad provides a much-anticipated glimpse into the mobile advertising landscape. M:Ad continuously monitors clickable display advertising from a broad representative set of mobile Web destinations, and classifies the data by industry, company and by product/service to reveal leading advertisers in and across market segments.

Mobile DTV Alliance Adds Focus on Harmonizing the Mobile TV Technologies

Promotes Harmonization across Multiple Broadcast Systems, Enhances Industry Collaboration with North American Broadcasters
SAN RAMON, Calif--The Mobile DTV Alliance today announced an expansion in the scope of its activities to address the emerging mobile TV market. The Mobile DTV Alliance has extended its work on implementation guidelines to encompass the emerging Advanced Television System Committee standard for mobile broadcast – ATSC-M/H – and broadened the Mobile DTV Alliance charter to include industry collaboration activities with North American broadcasters.
In support of the new charter, the MDTVA today released a key deliverable, the North American Mobile TV Implementation Guidelines. Thus, the MDTVA establishes itself as a primary collaboration forum between companies of various industries interested in mobile TV deployments, implementations and global testing.
“The Mobile DTV Alliance has considerable experience developing mobile TV implementation guidelines and bringing the mobile broadcast industry together,” said Walt Tamminen, president of the MDTVA. “Today we are excited to announce our refined focus on service interoperability, our expanded mission to collaborate with North American broadcasters, and the publication of our new mobile TV implementation guidelines, the common, interoperable service layer guidelines for multiple mobile TV technologies.” With these changes, the MDTVA is well positioned to help mobile carriers and broadcasters drive further market growth of mobile TV services in a more interoperable manner.
Interactive mobile TV continues to be the primary focus of the MDTVA. It is also the main mobile TV service enabled by the newly released implementation guidelines. The guidelines are based on the global Mobile Broadcast Services Enabler (OMA BCAST 1.0) specification, specially developed to address convergent TV opportunities across a wide variety of access systems. “Looking to harmonize network technologies on the service layer, our new implementation guidelines cater to DVB-H based broadcast systems today and will include ATSC-M/H based broadcast systems in the near future,” Tamminen said. “And since the guidelines are based on a global mainstream standard created by the Open Mobile Alliance, they are already being tested on a global scale by a wide variety of implementers.”
The three key aspects of the MDTVA’s implementation guidelines are:
-an interoperable technical foundation that builds on the efforts of the Open Mobile Alliance;
-support for multiple broadcast systems under a consistent service layer;
-expanded content protection options with Microsoft PlayReady technology, which supports the application of a wide range of business models to many types of entertainment content.

Handango Releases Smartphone Content Trends for 2007

Entertainment applications rose to the leading content category, showing a shift in consumer smartphone usage from business only to work-and-play

HURST, Texas, March 6 -- Handango, the world's leading provider of smartphone content, today released the 2007 Year-end Handango Yardstick, a global trend report about the smartphone content industry. For the first time in Yardstick history, Entertainment content was the leading sales category, moving from third place in 2006, signaling a consumer shift in using smartphones not just for business and productivity-related activities. Also, the report shows smartphones created and marketed to consumers to use for work and play were among the leading devices for content downloads in 2007.
The Handango Yardstick consolidates and reports on key smartphone market data based on content purchases on a quarterly and annual basis from across the Handango distribution network -- Handango.com, partner storefronts including carriers, OEMs and operating system partners, as well as individual application developers' websites that are powered by the Handango Commerce Engine. Market data in the report includes sales by content category; sales by device; top searches; the number of new software providers and applications added to the Handango library, and best-selling applications for each of the five major smartphone operating systems: BlackBerry(TM), Palm OS(R), Symbian OS(R), Windows Mobile(R) Standard (formerly Smartphone) and Windows Mobile(R) Professional (formerly Pocket PC).
2007 IN REVIEW:
Smartphones now used for both work and play
In 2007, Entertainment content was the top-selling category with 17 percent of total sales. Business & Professional content dropped from first place at 18 percent in 2006, to second place at 16 percent of total sales in 2007, suggesting that smartphone owners are using their devices for work and play. Other leading categories in 2007 were Productivity applications, such as address book and calendar, and Games, at third and fourth place, respectively.
BlackBerry mobile applications experienced triple-digit growth
More than 11,000 new mobile applications for the BlackBerry were added to the Handango network. In fact, the BlackBerry collection of applications grew at the largest rate, with 135% more applications added in 2007 than in 2006.
Devices catering to more mainstream consumers topped the list for mobile applications
The Blackberry Pearl and Motorola Q, smartphones targeted to consumers for both work and play, were among the top devices for content downloads in 2007, both by revenue and number of units sold.

PLATFORM OVERVIEW
In addition to the all-platform annual Handango Yardstick report, specific information is also available for each of the main smartphone operating systems: BlackBerry(TM), Palm OS(R), Symbian OS(R), Windows Mobile(R) Standard (formerly Smartphone) and Windows Mobile(R) Professional (formerly Pocket PC).
BlackBerry
Handango reported a stellar year for BlackBerry, with a 135% year over year increase in the number of new mobile content titles added to the Handango catalog. This operating system continues to be popular with consumers interested in Business & Professional applications, as sales in that category topped 31 percent in 2007, while Entertainment content came in second at 23 percent. Despite the fact that Business & Professional applications ranked highest in overall sales, the top 10 applications sold for BlackBerry in 2007 included Games, such as Sudoku and poker; Communications software, such as ringtones and instant messenger; and travel applications. The BlackBerry Pearl was the most popular device for mobile content in 2007, both in terms of revenue and units sold. The top 10 best-selling applications for BlackBerry in 2007 were:
1. Ringtone Megaplex (ringtone library)
2. Sudoku (puzzle game)
3. Colour Your Trackball (trackball customizer)
4. IM+ (instant messenger)
5. Ascendo DataVault (password manager)
6. WorldMate Live Gold Membership (travel assistant)
7. Aces Texas Hold'Em - No Limit (poker game)
8. IM+ for Skype (instant messenger)
9. SplashID for BlackBerry (information security)
10. Crackberry Ringtones Deluxe (ringtone library)
Windows Mobile Standard
Windows Mobile Standard users focused on play in 2007, as Entertainment applications topped the sales chart at 36 percent, and streaming media applications appeared in the top 10 best-sellers list. Business & Professional applications landed in distant second place at 12 percent. More applications -- over 1,600 -- were added to the Windows Mobile Standard catalog in 2007 than in 2006.
The top 10 best-selling applications for Windows Mobile Standard in 2007 were: 1. Ringtone Megaplex (ringtone library)
2. SBSH Facade (home screen plug-in)
3. MobiTV (streaming television)
4. HandiTV (streaming television)
5. Fizz Weather (weather monitor)
6. SmartphoneNotes (note manager)
7. Agendus Standard Edition (calendar manager)
8. Agenda One (calendar manager)
9. PocketStreamer (streaming media)
10. IM+ (instant messenger)
Palm OS
Although Palm released few devices in 2007, this operating system continued to show loyal demand for content throughout the year. The Palm Treo 650 remains one of the top devices for applications available from Handango. The top 10 best-selling applications for Palm OS in 2007 were:
1. PocketMirror Standard Edition (Outlook synchronization)
2. Agendus Professional Edition (personal information manager)
3. SplashID (information security)
4. Ringo Pro (ringtone player)
5. Agendus Premier Edition (Outlook synchronization)
6. Snap (data entry tool)
7. Agendus Desktop Edition (Outlook synchronization)
8. Diet & Exercise Assistant (fitness assistant)
9. PocketMirror Standard Upgrade (Outlook synchronization)
10. SplashWallet Suite (personal identification manager)
Windows Mobile Professional
The PPC 6700, which launched in 2005, topped the list of Windows Mobile Professional devices, demonstrating that older devices have remained popular with consumers downloading smartphone applications. Business & Professional applications remained the number one category in terms of sales for this operating system at 19 percent in 2007, with Entertainment applications coming in second at 15 percent. The top 10 best-selling applications for Pocket PC in 2007 were:
1. Spb Pocket Plus (today screen plug-in)
2. Spb Mobile Shell (today screen plug-in)
3. Pocket Informant 8 (today screen plug-in)
4. MobiTV (streaming television)
5. Spb Backup (file backup)
6. Microsoft Voice Command (voice control)
7. Spb Diary (today screen plug-in)
8. Spb Time (clock)
9. Spb Phone Suite (phone features)
10. Spb Brain Evolution (brain trainer)
Symbian OS
Users of the Symbian platform focused on Productivity and Utilities applications, coming in first and second place, respectively, in sales in 2007. The top 10 list included Productivity applications such as a time manager, as well as applications from other categories, including a music player, weather monitor and travel assistant. The top device for Symbian OS is the Nokia N95, which launched in 2007 and entered the top 10 device list for the first time. The top 10 best-selling Symbian OS applications in 2007 include:
1. SBSH Papyrus (time manager)
2. Handy Calendar for S60 (calendar manager)
3. LCG Jukebox (music player)
4. ProfiMail (email viewer)
5. Quickoffice Premier (document manager)
6. Handy Weather for S60 (weather monitor)
7. Advanced Call Manager (call manager)
8. WorldMate Professional (travel assistant)
9. Ultimate Voice Recorder (voice recorder)
10. IM+ (instant messenger)

Hostopia email service available for BlackBerry

BlackBerry customers can now utilize Hostopia's wholesale managed email service
FT. LAUDERDALE, FL, March 6

Hostopia.com, Inc., today announced that its Hostopia email service now offers integrated support for BlackBerry Internet Service from Research InMotion, Hostopia's wholesale, managed email platform provides email services to leading global service providers of telecommunications and Internet services, who, in turn, offer email services to millions of businesses and consumers worldwide. The Hostopia email service now allows BlackBerry smartphone users to automatically receive messages from their Hostopia email account. To instantly configure and connect with their Hostopia email account users can simply enter their email credentials into their BlackBerry smartphone. Hostopia's Chief Marketing Officer, Paul D. Engels, comments, "This new relationship with RIM will allow us to offer the benefits of the BlackBerry Internet Service push email architecture to broadband service providers. This will enable their end users to instantly activate high-performance, mobile email simply by entering their personal email credentials into their BlackBerry smartphone. BlackBerry Internet Service is a natural complement to Hostopia's email platform, which now includes webmail and SyncSuite, our mobile data synchronization clients, for the BlackBerry platform, Outlook and others. The Hostopia client lets email users wirelessly update contact and other personal data between their desktop PC and a BlackBerry smartphone." Over two million email users on Hostopia's system will be able to utilize BlackBerry Internet Service. Hostopia will market the service on a wholesale basis, selling to telecommunications companies, cable providers and other broadband ISPs who require email for their end-user customers. Customers who also take advantage of Hostopia's SyncSuite applications can wirelessly synchronize their calendars, contacts and task information so that changes made on a BlackBerry smartphone can be automatically synchronized, over-the-air with Outlook and Webmail. "Whether for business or personal use, wireless email is a powerful service that offers customers a multitude of benefits, including enhanced communications, productivity and flexibility," said Mark Guibert, Vice President, Corporate Marketing at Research In Motion. "We are pleased to be working with Hostopia to enrich the email experience for our mutual
customers."

Apple Announces iPhone 2.0 Software Beta

CUPERTINO, Calif., March 6 -- Apple today previewed its iPhone 2.0 software, scheduled for release this June, and announced the immediate availability of a beta release of the software to selected developers and enterprise customers. The iPhone 2.0 beta release includes both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks. "We're excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications for iPhone and iPod touch," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "iPhone's enterprise features combined with its revolutionary Multi Touch user interface and advanced software architecture provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform ever for a mobile device."

Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools to create innovative applications for iPhone and iPod touch. Starting today, anyone can download the beta iPhone SDK for free and run the iPhone Simulator on their Mac(R). Apple today also introduced its new iPhone Developer Program, giving developers everything they need to create native applications, and the new App Store,
a breakthrough way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod touch users. With the iPhone SDK, third party developers will be able to build native applications for the iPhone with a rich set of APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa Touch technologies. The iPhone SDK will allow developers to create amazing applications that leverage the iPhone's groundbreaking Multi-Touch user interface, animation technology, large storage, built-in three-axis accelerometer and geographical location technology to deliver truly innovative mobile applications.

Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft and is building it right into the iPhone, so that iPhone will connect out-of-the-box to Microsoft Exchange Servers 2003 and 2007 for secure over-the-air push email, contacts, calendars and global address lists. Built-in Exchange
ActiveSync support also enables security features such as remote wipe, password policies and auto-discovery. The iPhone 2.0 software supports Cisco IPsec VPN to ensure the highest level of IP-based encryption available for transmission of sensitive corporate data, as well as the ability to authenticate using digital certificates or password-based, multi-factor authentication. The addition of WPA2 Enterprise with 802.1x authentication enables enterprise customers to deploy iPhone and iPod touch with the latest standards for protection of Wi-Fi networks.

The iPhone 2.0 software provides a configuration utility that allows IT administrators to easily and quickly set up many iPhones, including password policies, VPN setting, installing certificates, email server settings and more. Once the configuration is defined it can be easily and securely delivered via web link or email to the user. To install, all the user has to do is authenticate with a user ID or password, download the configuration and tap install. Once installed, the user will have access to all their corporate IT services.

The iPhone 2.0 software release will contain the App Store, a new application that lets users browse, search, purchase and wirelessly download third party applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch. The App Store enables developers to reach every iPhone and iPod touch user. Developers set the price for their applications -- including free -- and retain 70 percent of all sales revenues. Users can download free applications at no charge to either the user or developer, or purchase priced applications with just one click. Enterprise customers will be able to create a secure, private page on the App Store accessible only by their employees. Apple will cover all credit card, web hosting, infrastructure and DRM costs associated with offering applications on the App Store. Third party iPhone and iPod touch applications must be approved by Apple and will be available exclusively through the App Store.

The iPhone SDK provides a reliable, fast and secure way to create innovative applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. In addition to the rich set of iPhone OS APIs, the iPhone SDK also provides advanced tools for creating native iPhone and iPod touch applications including: Xcode for source code editing, project management and graphical debugging; Interface Builder with drag and drop interface creation and live preview; Instruments to monitor and optimize iPhone application performance in real time; and the iPhone Simulator to run and debug applications.
During the beta iPhone SDK program, a limited number of developers will be accepted into Apple's new iPhone Developer Program and offered the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing. The Standard Program costs $99 (US) per year and gives members an iPhone SDK and development tools; access to pre-release iPhone software; technical support; the ability to
get code onto iPhones for testing; and distribution of applications via the new App Store. The Enterprise Program costs $299 (US) per year.

In addition to these new iPhone network and security features, the beta iPhone 2.0 software provides several new Mail features such as the ability to view PowerPoint attachments, in addition to Word and Excel, as well as the ability to mass delete and move email messages. Apple plans to release the final iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and new enterprise features, as a free software update for all iPhone customers by the end of June. Third party applications created for the iPhone will also run on the iPod touch, and iPod touch users will be required to purchase a software update to run these applications. The iPhone Developer Program will initially be available in the US and will expand to other countries in the
coming months.